


A long way from the playground

by AudreyRoscoe



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: 16-year old Liam, 16-year old Zayn, AU, Batman mentions, Fix-It, Liam Payne - Freeform, M/M, Zayn Malik - Freeform, alternative universe, and that no one came to his party made me sad, and you all know, because how could you not, but not much actually, it's Liam's sixteenth birthday, like bits of this are canon, playground, pre-X-Factor, pre-Ziam, ziam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-30
Updated: 2015-07-30
Packaged: 2018-04-12 03:01:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4462991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AudreyRoscoe/pseuds/AudreyRoscoe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>“No, no, Mom! It's all okay, don't worry, really. They probably just forgot and, uhm, I'll text them okay? I will! And next year's gonna be better, I, it's... it's okay”.</i><br/> </p>
<p>  <i>His mother had probably known that he was lying, had known that his “friends” hadn't just forgotten but had consciously decided to ignore him. To not come to his sixteenth birthday party.</i><br/> </p>
<p>  <i>It had been a mess, the smile on his mother's face slowly fading as time ticked by, even though she must have known all along – just as well as Liam had.<br/>Not that there hadn't been a tiny spark of hope inside of him, wishing there would at least be one person to care enough about him.</i><br/> </p>
<p>  <i>But obviously there wasn't.</i></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Or</p>
<p>No one attends Liam's party for his sixteenth birthday but Zayn is there to fix it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A long way from the playground

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!
> 
> This is my very first story on AO3 and I'm very, very excited!
> 
> As you all probably know there was the #LiamAppreciationDay-Tag on Twitter and when I scrolled through it I saw [this](https://twitter.com/thirlshoran/status/315141222312316928) again.
> 
> And it basically broke my heart - again.
> 
> So I wrote a little fix-it (somehow).
> 
>  
> 
> I hope you guys like it! Also thanks to my amazing beta [Ravi](http://harrielewie.tumblr.com/) who betaed this because English isn't my first language and sometimes I suck (a lot).  
> I also dedicate this to her because I love her and she's the best friend ever ❤
> 
> Enjoy!

“ _No, no, Mom! It's all okay, don't worry, really. They probably just forgot and, uhm, I'll text them okay? I will! And next year's gonna be better, I, it's... it's okay”._

 

His mother had probably known that he was lying, had known that his “friends” hadn't just forgotten but had consciously decided to ignore him. To not come to his sixteenth birthday party.

 

It had been a mess, the smile on his mother's face slowly fading as time ticked by, even though she must have known all along – just as well as Liam had.

Not that there hadn't been a tiny spark of hope inside of him, wishing there would at least be one person to care enough about him.

 

But obviously there wasn't.

 

Even his attempts of distracting her by telling her again and again how much he loved her cake, how much he appreciated the details and love she had put in it, failed when she realized that they were meant to be just that – a distraction.

 

They had eaten a piece of it in silence, his father not home from work yet. The clock had neared six pm when Liam had decided he needed some fresh air, the heavy atmosphere of the house and the sad look on his mother's face too much to bear.

 

 

So he found himself on the swing set of the playground his sister Ruth had taken him to a lot when he was still little. He had loved spending time with her here, building sandcastles that she decorated with flowers or letting her push him down the slide when he barely dared to.

 

Liam was gently swinging back and forth, his mind racing. He had no idea how to confront his family after this, had no desire to go back to his house to see the disappointment on his father's face and the pity of his sisters when they heard about it later.

 

“Hey, can I sit here?”.

 

Liam looked up, startled by the voice of the stranger, not having seen him enter the playground or approach him.

 

He cleared his throat, shaking his head slightly before plastering a smile on his face.

  
“Sure”.

 

The other boy nodded his thanks, sat down and placed what looked like a simple scrapbook in his lap, twirling a pencil between his fingers.

 

He must have been around his age, maybe a one year difference up or down, Liam couldn't tell. His dark hair was partly covered by a red beanie, his black shirt matching his darker jeans.

 

“I'm Liam, by the way”, he decided to introduce himself to the boy, since he didn't look like he would be planning to leave any time soon and neither did Liam.

 

“Zayn”, he replied, giving a short, forced looking smile.

 

Silence stretched between them, but it didn't feel weird or awkward.

 

“Why are you here?”, he found himself asking and he was about to slap his hand against his forehead for asking such a stupid and rather private question.

 

Zayn didn't comment on that, instead lifted his head and looked at him.

 

Liam noticed that he had really pretty, brown eyes, framed by lashes his sisters would be jealous of.

 

“Why are you?”, he asked back, not revealing any emotion.

 

“Um”, Liam let out blankly, wondering whether or not to tell him the truth about his lonely playground visit.

He decided to just go for it; he had never seen Zayn here before and his accent added up to Liam's theory that he wasn't from this townpart of the country.

People always said it was easier to talk to a stranger and Liam probably wouldn't see him ever again anyway.

 

“It's my birthday today, but my party kind of, uh, failed. And, well... Now I'm here”, he said lamely, unable to come up with a better explanation.

Liam hadn't wanted to tell him the whole, pathetic truth, but Zayn probably figured it out himself and he felt his cheeks growing hot with embarrassment.

 

“I'm sorry about that, mate”, Zayn said, sounding like he meant it.

 

Liam smiled, thanking him quietly before resuming his swinging, hoping not to distract Zayn from drawing, which the other boy had suddenly started to do.

He'd flipped open the scrapbook, slightly turned away from him and Liam made sure to not make him feel like he was staring at it or anything weird like that.

 

 

“There”, Zayn suddenly said, after what surely must have been about twenty minutes that had passed in silence.

 

Liam looked up from the sand under his shoes, surprised to be talked to again.

 

When he saw the picture Zayn had drawn his jaw dropped and he immediately felt like clasping his hands over his mouth. Which he luckily didn't do.

 

A cartoon-version of what, judging by the features, had to be him looked back at him, smiling brightly. His cartoon self was surrounded by people who gaped and grinned at him, all holding out presents or desserts for him and wearing festive clothes.

Liam himself was wearing a batman-costume.

Batman.

Liam loved Batman.

 

“How-?”, he started to ask, but Zayn simply pointed at his shirt, which had the Batman-symbol on it.

 

Liam didn't even know what to say.

He took the drawing, whispering a “thank you”, tracing the sharp lines with his fingers.

Zayn had made this within twenty minutes.

For him.

A complete stranger.

 

“I don't even know what to say. This is perfect. This is the best present I've ever got”, Liam gasped, feeling tears prickling at the corners of his eyes, which he blinked away quickly.

He was ridiculous.

 

Zayn was grinning, telling him it was no problem.

 

After Liam had stared at the picture some more he looked up again, meeting Zayn's eyes.

 

“Would you like to, you know, come over and maybe have some cake? We could watch Batman”.

 

He didn't even know where the sudden confidence came from, but the question was out before he was able to think about the consequences.

Somehow it felt easy with Zayn.

 

It led to Zayn immediately jumping off the swing, apparently waiting for him.

 

“I'm always up for cake and Batman”, he said, grinning slightly.

 

Liam could see the hidden sadness in his eyes, his behaviour making it obvious that he was relieved to spend his time elsewhere than wherever he had come from when he had stepped onto the playground.

 

_Maybe he will tell me_ , Liam thought, starting to walk in the direction of his house with Zayn in tow.

 

Maybe he would tell him like he would tell a proper friend.

 

The thought made Liam smile for the rest of the walk.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'd love to hear your thoughts!
> 
> I'm also on tumblr - [caslikesthemaccarena](http://caslikesthemaccarena.tumblr.com/)


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